Let Her Go
by AlecTowser
Summary: He never could love anyone the way he loved Jo. Written for fanfic100 prompt "023. Lovers."


**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own OCs, should I create any for these stories.**

**Author's Note: Inspired by Passenger's lovely song ****Let Her Go****, which I recommend listening to.**

**Mentions of the audio drama ****The Magician's Oath****, in which we learn that Jo knew about the way Mike felt about her, but at the end of the story, she lost her memories of the whole incident and (it's implied) about Mike's feelings, not remembering until years later.**

**Also, my headcanon Mike Yates is straight; every piece of canon material with the exception of ****No Future**** and ****Happy Endings**** implies he is, so I'm disregarding those two novels. Even ****The Magician's Oath****, which is told from the perspective of an older Mike Yates, implies that he still loves Jo.**

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Captain Mike Yates gazed forlornly at the bottom of his empty pint of beer. Jo Grant had just announced her impending marriage to Cliff Jones three days prior, swanning off without a thought to how Mike might have felt.

That wasn't entirely her fault, though - she didn't know. At one point she had, but that time had long since passed. Some of her memories had been stolen from an alien intruder a couple of years back, including ones about how Mike truly felt - that he was in love with her.

Oh, she and Mike had still been good friends after the fact, but Jo never thought he was being serious when he asked her out on dates; just a bit of fun between two friends. He had never said anything to contradict this, hoping that she would remember on her own. Unfortunately, she never had, and now she was getting married to someone else.

He had tried to be happy for her when she had told all the UNIT personnel that she was getting married; had offered congratulations to the both of them with a smile. However, he hadn't been able to stop the slight fall of his face when she had first mentioned it. He hoped she hadn't noticed - he didn't want to put a damper on her happy news.

She had looked so overjoyed at the engagement, and clearly wanted to share that joy with the rest of them; who was he to cause a scene and ruin that? The last thing he wanted was to see her unhappy. So he wished them well, then left the room as soon as he was able, not wanting her to bear witness to his heart breaking.

As he watched her walk down the aisle, looking more beautiful than ever in her gown, Mike had to catch his breath for a moment. Once he had caught himself and made sure he wasn't staring, he found himself hoping she was happy with Professor Jones, and that he treated her properly. Jo deserved to be happy; to have some stability in her life and someone to come home to. She would be far more likely to get that with Cliff than with him; a life in the military was always unpredictable.

Sometimes at night, he closed his eyes and he could still see her; smiling and laughing, and he remembered why it was that he'd fallen in love with her in the first place. "The girl with so much life in her", Diamond Jack had called her, and oh, how right he was.

Jack was perhaps the only other being that knew just how much life Jo had in her; the way she always managed to find the bright side of everything, the steadfast determination she had to succeed at whatever task she was given or set herself to, the way she could light an entire room with her smile… she truly had made him fall head over heels in love with her, whether she knew it or not.

The years passed, and Mike was alone. He had tried many times, and had several different lovers, but hadn't been able to find any other woman who could capture his heart the way Jo had. After a while, he resigned himself to the status of confirmed bachelor, deciding that he wouldn't get married.

Then recently, Jo had called him up out of the blue, telling him she'd found a card in her uncle's attic - the card her missing memories had been stored on - and that she remembered the Diamond Jack incident. She remembered everything. Then, there had been a slight pause, and she had simply told him how sorry she was, to which he had told her that he knew; and had forgiven her a long time ago.

And somehow, he realized as he put the receiver back on the hook, that simple acknowledgement from her just made him love her all the more, and he couldn't help but wonder what might have happened if things had been different.


End file.
